About me

NEWS! I am giving a presentation at the UK Creative Festival's Career's Fair on Thursday 10th July in Margate! If you are interested in a career in VFX, Design or Animation, please come and chat to me and my ETC colleagues.
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I haven't made my mind up about ChatGPT so here it comes, straight from my brain.

My name is Sophie and I am a Designer/Creative based in East London. As wonderfully unique and daring as that combination sounds, rest assured I am up for the challenge of being a pioneer.

My design journey started with an Art Foundation degree, where I eventually specialized in Fine Art (doing massive paintings with forks and making sculptures out of broken umbrellas). I hung up my paint brushes (and cutlery) to attend the University of Kent where I studied Art History and Film. This was very theory-based with a heck of a lot of essay writing about Dadaism and David Lynch, but I did make a short film that made people cry, so I would say the debt is worth it.
Before I graduated I did work experience at a VFX company called Electric Theatre Collective, and quickly realized two things; 1. My degree alone was not going to get me a creative career in this industry, and 2. I wanted to come back. I moved to London in 2018 and started running at ETC pretty much straight away. From the front of house team I was promoted to Creative Assistant in 2019, making pitches, maintaining the website and social media channels, writing blog posts/newsletters, and helping to put on events. This allowed me to keep tinkering with Adobe Suite and develop those skills throughout the pandemic, until plans for a design studio being formed under the ETC umbrella were announced. I sat myself with Ben Honour and Geoff Parsons, our patient leaders, as soon as they started and made it known that was where I wanted to be. In November 2022, they gave me a chance and made me a Junior Designer/Creative, and in 2025 knocked that 'junior' off the title. Learning largely on the job has taken a lot of hard work, determination and stepping so far out of my comfort zone it resembled a hazy spec on the horizon, so to have made it to this level feels pretty great.
In the past 2 (and a bit) years, I have been able grow my skills in 2D motion graphics, graphic design and art direction working on projects for major global brands such as Dr. Seuss, Hubspot, Whatsapp and Apple. I love to incorporate illustration and practice cel animation projects where possible, so I feel lucky to work in a studio that embraces different styles and techniques from both the analogue and digital disciplines.

My goal is to work my way up to a creative director role, however it seems important to acknowledge that I have very rarely had the opportunity to work with a female creative director. I feel strongly that there should be more women CD's in the industry as whilst I am very fortunate to work in a studio with two strong female lead artists, I would love to see more women and non-binary artists recognized for their creative contributions and individual perspectives at a more senior level.

Skills

2D Animation, After Effects, Illustration, Photoshop

Sector Experience

Advertising, Film (Short / Documentary)